In the wastewater network in various cities, wastewater travels through various different sets of pipes. Water that is used in a home or industry is flushed through the building's pipes until it reaches local wastewater pipes which are typically owned and operated by city and town sewer departments. These pipes have the potential of extending thousands of miles in larger cities. The local wastewater pipes transport the wastewater into another level of wastewater pipes sometimes referred to as interceptor sewers. The interceptors, range from 4 inches to 11 feet in diameter. The interceptors carry the region's wastewater to treatment plants.
Various codes are typically in place which requires pipes of certain diameters to be placed at certain slopes to allow the system to function properly by gravity. The same codes also typically require the wastewater to maintain sufficient velocity in the pipes. The same codes further require that the pipes meet certain minimum size requirements in order to safely transport the wastewater of the entire area the pipe services without overfilling the pipe. However, installing a larger diameter wastewater pipe than what is required has little benefit and as a matter of fact will actually slow the flow of water in the sewer pipe itself, potentially dropping it below the requisite velocity.
Balancing the pluming needs of the wastewater system especially in areas of substantial growth can be difficult. For example a small system may be installed that safely handles the region's water for a period of time. But with substantial population growth to the same region, the small system will need to be replaced with a larger system. In a few years the new system could potentially need replacing as well. While some areas may be able to address this problem by installing oversized pipes in the first place, this is not possible for other areas because the oversized pipes may not meet the various code requirements (such as mimum flow velocity) or may not be able to be installed at sufficient pitches.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved wastewater pipe for use in wastewater systems which addresses the above described problems or which more generally offers improvements or an alternative to existing wastewater pipes.